Five Days of Compensation
by Karneene
Summary: Kyoya didn’t think compensation was ever meant to be used in the context they seemed to be applying it to of late. HikaKao, strictly physical KyoKao, TamaHaru, One-sided HikaHaru. T for language and implied sexual activity.
1. Far From a Crime

_**Day One: Far From a Crime…**_

Kyoya yawned widely as he typed away on his laptop, fingers flying across the keys with effortless ease. He was exhausted from all the work but that wasn't anything to bother himself over; after all it was just the norm. Working until the small hours of the morning was something he had gotten used to easily, what with work from school, his father's company, and the Host Club he barely had any time to sleep. Not that he needed it, of course.

Not even when the numbers began to move of their own accord across the screen.

"Shit," he muttered, taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes. "Well, perhaps it can wait until tomorrow; far from a crime to put it off. After all-"

Kyoya's thoughts were interrupted as his cell phone buzzed quietly from his jeans, which he'd tossed casually over the desk chair he never used. He stretched and moved the computer off of his lap, hand searching the sheets for his glasses. His bare feet made no noise on the carpet as he dug through the pockets for his phone.

"Nani?" he demanded crossly as he opened it. Who could be calling at such a late hour?

"Kyoya-Senpai?"

"_Kaoru_?"

"Uhm… I need a favor."

"At almost one o' clock in the morning?" Kyoya replied dryly.

"Well… I'd like a place to stay for the night."

Kyoya waited.

"Hikaru and I… had a bit of an argument."

Kyoya waited some more.

"Ok, so Hikaru and I had an extravagant falling out because he's being a blind, arrogant, backstabbing asshole and I don't want to spend another minute under the same roof."

"Should I cover the mirrors?" the Shadow-King drawled.

"Is that a yes?"

Kyoya chuckled. "Don't forget to pack anything, Kaoru. I'm not lending you clothing or anything of the sort. I'm far taller than you in any case."

"Hai," the boy said gratefully. The line went dead before the raven-haired boy could respond, and he smirked slightly at the phone as it blinked Kaoru's picture twice before defaulting back to the main screen. Still smirking, he plugged it into the wall charger and settled down to wait.

Hikaru didn't know what he was giving up.

Not that the Shadow-Lord had any particularly deep-rooted feelings for the boy, except perhaps considering their friendship. But to be able to have someone who loved you wholeheartedly, no matter who you were or what… but he was getting sentimental. Still, Kyoya wasn't the type to pass up an opportunity and after being obsessed with Haruhi for so long he hadn't slept with anyone in well… in just as long. With Kaoru in the same situation, just for a different person, well… maybe. But of course this was all morbid speculation brought about by lack of sleep. Still… it was far from a crime to speculate.

"Misery loves company," Kyoya said with a yawn, shaking his head to clear it of the thoughts running themselves in circles around the inside of him mind. Covering his mouth out of habit despite the room being empty other than himself, he walked over to the landline on his bedside table and pressed a button, connecting him to the night staff.

"Hitachiin Kaoru will be arriving soon. See to it that he and all his belongings find their way to my room, understood?"

"Hai, sir."

"Oh, and… no need to worry my family with this matter."

"Hai, sir."

"That'll be all."

* * *

"So you didn't tell him where you were staying?" Kyoya asked conversationally as he typed on his laptop. Kaoru had brought one suitcase with him, perhaps the size one might pack if they were going on a one-week vacation. It was hardly what one would pack to stay the night, but while Kyoya raised an eyebrow at it he hadn't said anything more. It was now closer to three in the morning but neither were particularly tired, and after changing into pyjamas Kaoru had proceeded to lay himself out on the floor like an oddly shaped throw rug and trace patterns on the rug with his finger while Kyoya worked, kicking his legs lazily the way a cat might flick its tail. Kyoya was in nothing but pajama bottoms per usual, black cotton pants crossed with his legs as he sat Indian-Style. Kaoru shrugged from where he'd spread himself out on the floor.

"What difference would it make aside from causing you trouble? They'd just get angry at you for encouraging me because, of course, Hikaru is just _so_ apologetic."

Kyoya looked at the younger boy speculatively. "Such malice, Kaoru," he said, his voice teasingly reproachful. The boy glared up at him in response.

"Fuck off."

Kyoya raised an eyebrow at him, and Kaoru sighed.

"Alright, fine, gomen." He closed his eyes and massaged his temples, flipping over from his stomach onto his back to get a better view of the flawless white ceiling. "It's just…" He sighed. "Nevermind. You couldn't understand."

"I couldn't?" Kyoya asked dryly. Kaoru opened one eye to see Kyoya leaning over the edge of the bed from his cross-legged position and staring into his eyes. The steel color unnerved him, and he wished the older boy would adjust them to glare as he usually did.

"Uhm…" No such luck. "No, I don't think so."

"Try me," the dark-haired boy returned smoothly. Kaoru looked at him speculatively for a few moments.

"Kyoya Senpai…" he murmured, "…why did you let me stay here without any…?" He trailed off, looking for the appropriate word. "Any… compensation."

Kyoya smirked. "You're assuming I'm not expecting any." He tilted his head to the side with a teasing sort of glint in his eye. "Just compensation, mind."

"Ah." Kaoru said, interest moving across his features. A sadistic glint formed in his eye as Kyoya shifted on the bed. "A type of compensation that might… piss off my brother?"

Kyoya chuckled and adjusted his glasses. "Why Kaoru, you have such a black mind." He looked down at the younger boy. "You don't want to do that, in any case."

Kaoru glared up at him defiantly. "And why not?"

Kyoya snorted. "Out of all the people in the world that you would be willing to spend the rest of your life with, if you had to pick in order of preference, I'm under the assumption that I would be _compensation_ for others, correct?"

Kaoru gave the darker haired boy a scathing look. "I didn't mean anything as sentimental as that."

"Answer the question."

Kaoru made a face. "Third."

Kyoya chuckled. "And the same goes for you. So tell me, Kaoru, why exactly did you leave your first choice and come here?"

His visage darkened considerably. "Cause my brother's an impotent fool who doesn't recognize the futility of wanting something you could never, ever have."

Kyoya smiled back grimly. "It's not a crime to want, Kaoru."

The red haired boy sighed heavily as he looked away from Kyoya, eyes tracing the ceiling once more. "No," he said, voice laced with resigned exasperation. "It isn't."

**A/N: Sorry if they're a little OOC but they need to be for this plotline to work. And yes, Kaoru is kinda mean in this one. T.T**


	2. My Brother's Keeper

_**Day Two: My Brother's Keeper**_

"Morning, Kaoru," Haruhi said with a cordial smile as the young man walked into the room with a yawn. He waved a hand at her in response, covering his mouth with the other while it simultaneously clasped his bag. "Are you alright?"

"Tired," he replied, sitting down next to her. The girl gave him a knowing look.

"You and Hikaru stay up playing… video games… again?..." Haruhi blinked; at the very mention of his brother's name Kaoru had stiffened, shoulders straightening instinctively the way one might see stags prepare to fight for dominance. Haruhi shot him a confused look. "Kaoru… where's Hikaru?"

"How should I know?" he demanded sourly. "I'm not his keeper."

Haruhi gave him a stern look. "You two aren't pretending to fight again, are you?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Kaoru, _where's Hikaru_?"

"And please, don't speak his name to me ever again."

"_Kaoru_!" Haruhi said, half reproachfully half horrified.

"_Haruhi_!" the red-head replied in a mocking voice. Haruhi's eyebrows furrowed.

"What's going on?"

Kaoru snorted. "Hikaru and I had a little disagreement last night."

"Little? Little wouldn't make you act like this," she deadpanned. Kaoru snorted again.

"Yeah, well, I thought he should stop being an asshole. Stop taking things for granted. That loyalty was important." The boy shrugged. "He seemed to disagree."

"_And_?" the girl prompted. Kaoru shrugged.

"I left."

"You _left_?!?!"

"Yeah. I stayed with a friend."

"A friend," she repeated, looking at Kaoru with a certain amount of exasperated disbelief.

"A friend."

"I can't believe-"

"Settle down class!" the teacher called, walking into the room. Haruhi shut her mouth, but continued to glare at Kaoru, the younger twin obstinately ignoring her.

When Hikaru ran into class ten minutes later, the only sound besides his panted apologies and the teacher's stern reproaches was a single derisive snicker from the seat next to Haruhi. When Hikaru noticed his brother however, his eyes widened and he breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Haruhi half expected him to run across the room to his twin. But all he did was set his jaw resolutely, avoid the eyes of the other students, and move to a seat on the other side of the room.

* * *

"You're making us lose money," Kyoya said as his pen flew across his paper, his math homework standing no chance against the blows of his pen. Kaoru watched with a certain amount of envy, ignoring the Demon-King's statement.

"I always hated math…"

A corner of Kyoya's mouth turned up as he flipped the page over, eyes skimming problems for a few seconds before his writing utensil touched the page. "I know."

Kaoru shuddered in response. "You're such a stalker, Senpai."

Kyoya let out a startled laugh. "Stalker?"

"Nevermind," Kaoru replied quickly, out of habit. Kyoya was not fooled at all by this fake show of fear, however, and simply gave the younger boy knowing look, chuckling slightly.

"I don't stalk people. Accessing information is simply easy for me."

"Uh huh," the boy said, smirking back. The two looked at each other for a few moments before turning back to their homework. Kaoru was lying on his stomach, kicking his feet back and forth slowly, the way a lazing cat might flick its tail. The movement was distracting and Kyoya looked down at the boy, clearing his throat to try and catch his attention. This failed miserably.

"Kaoru…?" he ventured instead. The boy looked up at him, and Kyoya raised an eyebrow and indicted his feet with a glance. The red head favored him with an apologetic grin.

"Gomen."

Kyoya went back to doing his math homework. There was only one problem left, in any case. _X to the root of Y, over-_

A flash of skin in the corner of his eye caught his attention; Kaoru's foot, kicking once more. He boy was sucking on the end of his pen, face set in concentration as he glared balefully at the last math problem on the worksheet in front of him. Kyoya leaned over to look.

"You have to divide, not multiply for that one." He looked at it closer. "But you can simplify more than that. Look at your denominator."

The boy looked at the problem before groaning at his own stupidity and fixing his mistake. He then studied the problem, a crease between his brows. He glanced at Kyoya, then back at the page. "But for all the other ones-"

"Doesn't matter. Look at the circumstances, not the pattern."

The boy looked at the problem. "Oh… yeah. Thanks."

The pen came out of his mouth as she scribbled away. His feet continued to swing lazily. Kyoya closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Not to imply that I am in any particular hurry to see you go, as you amuse me, but how long do you plan on staying here?"

"I _amuse_ you?"

"Answer the question, Kaoru."

The boy shrugged.

"Hikaru already apologized to you."

The boy stiffened but remained unresponsive.

"Seventeen and a half – counting that time you walked out in the middle of his little monologue – times, to be precise."

"Yeah, well, maybe he should keep trying."

Kyoya's mouth twisted into some semblance of a wry grin. "Not everyone knows you to be so twisted, Kaoru. You might ruin your image."

"An apology's not going to cut it!" Kaoru snarled, tossing down his pen. He stood up suddenly, and Kyoya watched him pace.

"Well what do you want from him then?" he asked, voice still calm. Kaoru wasn't listening.

"If he still gives a fuck about her that way then it doesn't matter if he apologizes, now does it? The issue's still there, isn't it?" Kyoya remained silent. "_Isn't it?!_"

Kyoya sighed. "Tamaki may be under the mistaken impression that I am your mother, Kaoru, but I am not equipped to deal with breakdowns. Either sit down and speak to me like a sane person or sit down elsewhere and calm down before you come back."

Kaoru glared down at the older boy for a few moments, quivering with anger. Kyoya met his gaze evenly, and finally hazel eyes closed, Kaoru heaving a sigh that took all the presence from him. He settled next to Kyoya on the bed as though he was naught but substantial as a feather. Kyoya noticed now how pale he was, how dark the circles under his eyes were. Kyoya had the tendency to sleep deeply, but he'd seen the evidence of Kaoru's anguished tossing and turning when he'd knocked the alarm clock off the desk, turned over, and seen the boy knotted in the sheets. It had taken them eight minutes to untangle him that morning, even combining their efforts. As he looked now, Kyoya could see that Kaoru was exhausted. What he didn't understand was why he was putting himself through all of this. After all, Hikaru had chosen him, hadn't he?

"I don't understand you," Kyoya said, putting the last of his math homework on the bedside table. He knew he could finish the rest in the limo; it was the last piece of homework they'd had left, in any case. "Hikaru made it very clear that if it came down to it, he chose you." He paused thoughtfully. "Well, to those of us who knew the circumstances, that is. He was very careful while speaking. I applaud his tact."

"Yeah, that's my brother, King of Tact," Kaoru snorted derisively. Kyoya gave him a mildly reproachful look and he turned away.

"You're obviously suffering, Kaoru. What are you doing? What do you think will come of this?"

"Him realizing that I'm not behind him all the time," Kaoru said, voice dripping with anger and malice. "Maybe after this he'll think to look back once in a while; make sure I'm still there. I'm not his keeper, born second to watch him wherever he goes. Obviously he's forgotten we're _twins_, not… I don't know, servant and master. Or rich brat and babysitter. I'm not obligated to be with him at all times."

"So you're punishing him," Kyoya said flatly, giving the younger boy a stern look. Kaoru shrugged again, nonchalance peppering his anxiety and throbbing-heart visage. "For how long do you plan to punish him, then?"

Kaoru shrugged. "For however long it takes." He turned to Kyoya suddenly, eyes burning with something so deep and strong that it took the older boy's breath and tucked it deep down into the lower recesses of his chest. It took him two seconds to find it, and Kaoru took advantage of his momentary confusion to capture raven-haired hair in his fingers and lean forward, crushing his lips to the older student's.

Kyoya struggled for a grand total of one and a half seconds before Kaoru's tongue slipped between his lips and he stopped thinking anything at all. It had been so long since he'd kissed someone…

And soon too long since he'd taken a breath. He pulled back, breathing heavily. Kaoru's eyes were dark with satisfaction and a certain amount of desire.

"What are you doing?" Kyoya demanded, pulling out of his grip.

"Don't tell me you didn't enjoy that."

"I'm not going to let you use me to piss off your brother," Kyoya snarled angrily, onyx eyes sparking dangerously in the darkness. Kaoru laughed.

"Such vulgar language, Senpai…"

"Kaoru," Kyoya said warningly, and the boy gave him a withering look.

"You been pining away over Haruhi for so long you forgot how to have a platonic relationship or purely physical sex, Kyoya? They don't have to go together, you know." he goaded. Kyoya started, marginally shocked. "Oh come on, no one in the fucking club can truthfully say they're not in love with her. Or at least a little bit. But you're not going to do anything because she's obviously Tamaki's, and I'm not going to do anything because the person I'm really in love with is smitten with her too and can't see that she's obviously meant to be with someone else! So what's stopping you?"

"This is absurd," Kyoya muttered, but his heart wasn't in it.

"People like us, we don't get the girl." Kaoru said. "We have to compensate."

Kyoya shook his head wordlessly.

"God, Kyoya, do something unprecedented for once! Do something without over-thinking it and planning too much! We're pathetic and we need to cope; get over yourself! Do-"

And then Kaoru couldn't talk anymore, because his mouth was too busy doing other things.

**A/N: Yeah, just to be clear, they don't like each other that much XD. And I know this is very different from my usual writing so I suppose I must apologize for that, but I hope you enjoy it in any case. Thanks for the reviews I've already recieved! And more, which can be anything from flames to compliments, would be greatly appreciated!**


	3. With One Look

_**Day Three: With One Look**_

"Morning, Haruhi," Kaoru said with a sadistic sort of smirk as he walked in. The girl took one look at him and her eyebrows scrunched together.

"Good morning… what happened to your ear?" she asked, leaning in to see odd flat red marks along the bottom of his left ear. "They… they look like teeth marks."

Kaoru continued to smile his sadistic smirk, while Hikaru watched silently, jaw twitching.

"Yeah…"

Haruhi's eyes widened. "Who bit you?"

Kaoru waved his hand. "Oh, there's a boy at the house where I'm staying…"

Haruhi gave him a look. "What did you do to make him bite you?"

Kaoru grinned widely. "He was misbehaving, so I tied him up."

Haruhi gave him a stern look. "Little children don't understand that you're just playing, Kaoru. That's a terrible thing to do to a child."

"Oh, it was all in good fun." He smiled even wider as Hikaru shifted in his seat, every muscle in his body stiffer than a board. "Actually, I rather think he enjoyed it."

"He enjoyed being tied up?" the girl demanded. Kaoru chuckled.

"Well, he got out in the end. And then he tied me up, which he seemed to enjoy more." He fingered his ear with a mild wince. "Although he seemed to feel that this wasn't punishment enough."

Haruhi looked scandalized. "How many times did he bite you?" she demanded. Kaoru shrugged, still smiling.

"I lost count."

"But I don't see any more marks…"

Kaoru chuckled. "Yes, well, I was wearing a t-shirt then, rather thin. You should see the rest of me."

It was at this point that Hikaru stood up and left the classroom, slamming the door behind him.

* * *

"Kaoru, how'd you get that bite-mark on your ear?" one girl asked, eyes wide. Kaoru looked down at her with a smirk, eyes flickering to a shadow in the corner of the room to grant a certain dark form one look of shared amusement. Hikaru followed his gaze to where Kyoya was sitting, typing away on his laptop, seemingly not paying attention to his surroundings. As soon as Kaoru glanced at him however, a smirk flickered at the corner of his lip. His head did not turn to acknowledge that he had seen the younger boy's expression, and Hikaru was not positive how exactly he'd been watching his brother, but at that very second he knew. And the realization set his blood boiling hotter than molten gold.

"Oh, well there's a boy staying at the house of a friend I'm staying with…"

Hikaru stood up suddenly, startling his customers.

"Kaoru, can I speak to you for a minute?" he demanded. The younger boy looked up with a raised eyebrow. Yes, he was definitely spending time with Kyoya.

"Whatever about?"

"You know exactly what about," Hikaru snarled between his teeth. Kaoru smiled politely at his customers.

"Excuse me for a moment."

Hikaru grabbed his brother's arm and pulled him out of the room off into a side door as all the girls and hosts watched, eyes wide. He dragged his brother down the hall for a good twenty feet before opening a side door at random and dragging them both inside. It turned out to be a broom closet, but Hikaru didn't mind in the least, pulling on the light chain with an unbefitting ferocity.

"What the fuck are you doing?"

Kaoru smiled innocently. "Whatever are you talking about?"

"Don't pull that shit with me, Kao. You're sleeping with Kyoya, aren't you?"

Kaoru's feigned surprise wouldn't have fooled a cow. "How did you know I was staying with him? He didn't even tell his family!"

"That's not what I meant by sleeping, and we both know it."

"Hikaru, such a black mind…" Kaoru drawled, mind flashing back to Kyoya's face as he repeated the Shadow-King's words.

Hikaru growled angrily and pinned his brother to the wall. "Kao, I'm asking you to stop this. I apologized! What more do you want from me?"

Kaoru smiled sadistically. "Understanding," he said, shoving back so hard Hikaru hit the opposite wall, knocking aside a broom resting in the corner with an audible clatter. "And the way we are right now, you couldn't understand a single thing."

Hikaru's eyes were wider than saucers as he stared in shock at his mirror image.

"Oh, give up the innocence," Kaoru said scathingly. "The uke role doesn't suit you."

Hikaru blinked at his brother with wide eyes, glimmering suspiciously in the weak light of the closet. It was this one look that had broken Kaoru so many times, this perfect picture of horrified innocence. Those times, of course, it had all been feigned, but the expression had always made him weak in the knees and Hikaru had exploited that whenever he could on the days when Kaoru got tired of always being the one on the bottom. This time, however, the younger twin brushed the twinge in his chest aside without so much of a twitch. "Don't do this, Kaoru." The younger boy didn't even flinch. "I love you."

Kaoru laughed wildly, throwing open the door to hit Tamaki right in the nose. It bled freely as he glanced over his shoulder at his mirror image. "That's not enough anymore, Hikaru." Ignoring the group of shocked hosts (minus Kyoya, who had stayed in the Club room) gathered around the door, he walked back towards the Third Music Room. "Frankly? I wonder if it was ever enough."

* * *

Kyoya was expecting two calls after Hikaru and Kaoru's PDA (public display of animosity). Instead, he got four.

"Kyo-chan, how could you do this to Hika-chan?" Huni demanded from the other end of the line. Kyoya held the phone far away from his ear in surprise. "He was _crying_!"

Kyoya sighed. "I'm housing Kaoru until this fight is over. I see no crime in that. If I were to force Kaoru out, he wouldn't go back. He'd simply rent a hotel room or some such nonsense."

"You're lying," Mori deadpanned from the other end of the line.

"I'm not _lying_, Mori-Senpai…"

Tamaki's call was even worse, although he was far more prepared for it.

"YOU'REMYBESTFRIENDHOWCOULDYOUDOSUCHATHINGITHOUGHTBETTEROFYOUKYOYA! WELLYOUKNOWIFICAN'TTRUSTYOUTOTELLMETHINGSTHENI'MNOTGOINGTOTELLYOUANYTHINGEITHER! DOYOUHAVEANYIDEAHOWUPSETWITHYOUIAM? ICAN'T_BELIEVE_…"

Kyoya wasn't sure if the boy even took a breath in between sentences.

Haruhi's was more tame, albeit as equally as Huni's, but the guilt that came crashing down upon the very sound of her voice was stifling compared to Tamaki's shrieks. That and the awkwardness was enough to make him wish for a handgun.

"Hikaru was pretty upset, Kyoya-Senpai. Don't you think you could get Kaoru to talk to him, at least?"

"I've tried, Haruhi."

Haruhi cleared her throat nervously. "Well… that's not what it sounded like…" she said awkwardly. Kyoya closed his eyes and prayed she wouldn't finish her train of thought.

Of course, she did.

And then, of course, was the kicker. Hikaru, calling at nine fifty three and hanging up after one ring. Then again, at ten sixteen, hanging up as soon as Kyoya picked up the phone. He called twice to the same effect, once at ten thirty nine and again at ten fifty three. And finally again at eleven oh four, at which point began possibly the oddest and definitely the worst conversation Kyoya had ever had by phone.

"Hello?"

"Kyoya," came the lifeless voice at the other end. "Senpai." He tacked on the honorific as an afterthought.

"Oh… hello, Hikaru."

Kaoru's eyes raised from his paper for what seemed like the millionth time that night. He mouthed an apology, wincing slightly. Kyoya couldn't help but feel marginally encouraged by this; it was more of the original Kaoru than he'd seen in a long time.

"I… uhm… is Kaoru there?"

"Hai."

"Well, can you… can he not be… could you go to another room or something?"

"You… don't wish to speak with him?"

"I'd like to talk to you, first."

Kyoya shrugged at Kaoru and walked into the bathroom, shutting the door behind him. He knew very well that if one pressed their ear to the door the echoes would make it more than easy to hear. He figured it was Kaoru's choice.

"Are you in another room?"

"Hai."

"Why the hell are you fucking my brother?" Hikaru snarled viciously.

Kyoya blinked at the sudden change in tone. "I'm not fucking your brother, Hikaru."

"Oh, come on," Hikaru said, and the Shadow-Lord was reminded unnervingly of the previous night, when the boy's twin had said the same exact phrase. "Have a little self-respect. Don't lie to my face." He paused. "Or, ear, whatever."

Kyoya tried not to see the humour in that and failed. "Fair enough. Fine, I will admit, we caught each other at a… marginally vulnerable moment and slept together once. I apologize, but frankly I'd like to ask you a question. What exactly did you say to upset him so?"

There was an anguished noise on the other side of the line. "I don't know."

Kyoya raised an eyebrow to the empty bathroom, putting down the toilet lid and sitting on top of the clean cream porcelain. "How do you _not know_?"

"Look, we went to bed together as usual, and everything was fine. But one minute I was dreaming and the next the lights had come on and Kaoru was pulling out a suitcase from the closet and grabbing pieces of clothing at random, and he was so upset… I don't even know what happened!"

Kyoya's brow furrowed, thinking. What could have possibly happened while Hikaru was sleeping…? And then the pieces fell together with a near audible click. "Oh… Hai, that makes much more sense."

"What?" Hikaru demanded.

Kyoya smiled bitterly. "You were dreaming about Haruhi, correct?"

Silence met his words on the other end of the line.

"You spoke in your sleep. That's why Kaoru is so inexplicably angry with you, and why he won't accept apologies. It was your subconscious that committed the crime in his eyes, and therefore your waking mind is not accountable."

"Well, what am I supposed to do then?"

Kyoya sighed. "Kaoru, he… I don't think he will be returning for some time."

"What? Why?"

Kyoya smiled another grim smile. "As long as you are in love with Haruhi as well as him, the incident can happen again. Therefore… I am almost positive that he does not intend to return until there is no chance of such a thing."

"…you mean… he's not coming home until I stop liking Haruhi."

"I'm afraid so."

"But… but that's ridiculous!" the older boy spluttered. "I have no control over that!"

Kyoya sighed. "I'm more than aware of that."

"Well… talk to him! Make him change his mind!"

"And how do you expect me to do that?" Kyoya replied, amused disbelief coloring his voice.

Hikaru was silent for a few minutes. "I'm not… this isn't what I want, but… if it'll get him to talk to me again then it's worth it." His voice was tight.

Kyoya waited.

"Kaoru… is particularly easy to convince using… a few dirty tricks, if you know what I mean."

Kyoya waited some more.

"Tricks that include pillows."

"You _want_ me to seduce your brother?"

"I want him to talk to me again!" Hikaru shot back, obviously distressed. "I want to be able to… to talk to him without him acting like… like _you_! I want to be able to touch him without him flinching away. I want to be able to be in the same room with him without having to sit on the other side, I want…"

He trailed off brokenly, and Kyoya sighed.

"Just because you tend to use… a particular avenue to achieve your goals when it comes to your brother, that does not necessarily mean it is the best general way to do so."

"Well what are you going to do, then?" Hikaru demanded.

Kyoya took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose; he felt a headache coming on already. "I am going to try."

There was silence on the line for a few moments. "Thank you, Kyoya-Senpai."

Kyoya chuckled and closed the phone. _Ah, the things I get myself into…_

Getting up he opened the bathroom door, where Kaoru was lying on the floor, looking particularly flushed. Kyoya smirked.

"I know you were listening."

"I was not."

Kyoya chuckled. "Fine, have it your way. You weren't listening."

Kaoru gave him a speculative look, then shrugged and went back to reading. They'd both already finished their homework, but what with it being a Friday neither had seen any real reason to go to bed. Especially not when they'd expected another call from Kaoru's brother any minute.

"You very nearly broke Tamaki's nose," Kyoya said conversationally as he folded himself back onto the bed, typing away as usual. The gentle hum of the laptop on his legs was a soothingly familiar noise, and he concentrated on that instead of the situation Kaoru had worked them into.

And they all thought he was the manipulative one.

"I know."

There was a tinge of something more than exasperated apology in the boy's voice, and Kyoya's fingers paused on the keys as he turned to the red-head with a raised eyebrow.

"You did it on purpose."

"I know."

Kyoya set him with a sharp look that screamed 'What are you playing at?', but the boy ignored him, simply turning the page.

"You didn't think I would have any problems with you physically harming my best friend to the point of necessary repair?"

"Oh come on, don't tell me you never wanted to hit Tono with a door before."

Kyoya smirked despite himself. "Not with a _door_, no."

"Besides, he got the better end of it in the end."

Kyoya raised his eyebrow again. "How so?" he replied, taking the bait as he adjusted his glasses. Kaoru fixed him with a knowing smirk.

"Haruhi spent the whole entire club period fussing over him, didn't she?"

Kyoya watched him with a certain amount of marginally impressed interest. "You meant for that to happen, then."

Kaoru snorted. "Of course I did." He laughed sadistically. "Did you see Hikaru twitching while she was holding the napkin to his nose?"

Kyoya smiled grimly. "No, I was too busy watching the screaming fangirls. I checked the polls Renge set up on the website; apparently Tamaki and Haruhi's pairing's rating has gone up.

"Wasn't it already at fifty-something out of all Tono's pairings?"

"Fifty-six." Kyoya smiled grimly. "It's up to sixty-nine now."

"Sixty-nine?" Kaoru drawled, but in his mouth the word meant something else and Kyoya fixed him with another sharp glance. This one said 'It's not happening'. Kaoru grinned back cheekily; 'We'll see'.

**A/N: Sorry it took so long to update! I've been in London the past month, and the computer with all my stories was back home, so.... my bad? XD Anyhow tell me what you think of it? Good, bad? Terrible? Totally awful and I should just jump into a hole and die? XD But seriously, comments, flames, criticism's all good and welcome here. I'd like to know how I'm doing. And thanks to those who reviewed already. In response to a comment-I know Kaoru's being a little OOC but he needs to be for this plotline to work. I'll try to update soon!**


	4. Choices

_**Day Four: Choices**_

Kaoru blinked in the darkness, yawning so wide his jaw creaked. Sleep still crusted his eyelids, and in the pitch black of the room he had no sense of anything but his arms around Hikaru's waist, his head burrowed into the crook of his brother's neck. They often slept in this position… although Hikaru's hand would usually be buried in his hair, not lying in front of his face like he'd been stroking his cheek or…

Hikaru's fingers were not as long and graceful as those, nor were they as pale.

Right. He'd won out that night. And got lucky. With Kyoya. Not Hikaru.

Kaoru's chest tightened painfully as his memories came swimming back, and he closed his eyes in the pitch black of Kyoya's room as if attempting to shut out the memory.

"_Kaoru! Kaoru, let go of me!" Hikaru's yells had cut through the fog of sleep like a knife, and his eyes had flashed open before he was even fully awake. "She's getting away! Don't ask me to choose, I'll be right back, I swear…"_

"_Hika…" Kaoru had muttered muzziy. "You're dreaming…"_

"_HARUHI!"_

_Suddenly something cold had crept its way into his chest, squeezing his heart tighter than a steel trap. His breath was shallow as he listened for more, but his brother's dream must have been over because he simply shifted in his sleep, withdrawing his arms from around the boy next to him and fisting them in the blankets instead. He pulled them closer to his body, leaving Kaoru's feet bare and cold._

_Hikaru had dreamt of Haruhi before. It wasn't as if this was a rare occurrence. But when he awoke he seemed to have no recollection of the dreams whatsoever, as if this subconscious mind was no longer connected to the operative parts of his brain. The realization that his brother did not even remember the dreams to feel apologetic about them most of the time simply made his blood boil, and he'd lain in the semi-dark of their room and watched the clouds fly by the moon for what seemed like an eternity. He was slowly slipping away; he could feel it. Sleeping was so much harder for him now, if only to avoid the dreams. He was sure it was the same one his brother was having by now._

"_Alright, I'll choose for you," he'd said finally, anger slipping a reddish haze into his vision. "I'm letting go, Hikaru."_

_And with that he'd slid out of bed, flicked on the light, and began to pack his bag._

"Haruhi," Kyoya mumbled. "Tamaki."

Kaoru looked at the darkness where the older boy's face should have been with a patronizing smile. In the darkness he could only vaguely make out the shadowed outline of his hair, and he wondered vaguely what time it was. Kyoya had special curtains to prevent sunlight filtering in before he wanted to be awoken; Shadow-Lord to the end, Kaoru supposed.

But still, even hearing the girl's name fall from yet another of his bedmates, he felt nothing put pity for the boy. While his second choice might have been destined to be with Kyoya's, Kaoru still got to keep his first. Yes, he was livid with the boy now, but deep down he knew that eventually he would get over it and return home, because that was just the way things were meant to be. But Kyoya… who did Kyoya have? When you can't have choice one, two, or three, where do you go?

"Kyoya," Kaoru said, suddenly deeming this an important question, "who's your fourth choice?"

"Hmm?" the boy muttered, still mostly asleep.

"To spend the rest of your life with. You said I was your third choice. Who's fourth?"

Kaoru's eyes had adjusted to the darkness somewhat and he watched as the boy smirked in his sleep. Kaoru couldn't help but grin; typical. "Mori-Senpai is straight… despite oddities with Huni-Senpai…"

"Alright, fifth?"

"Don't… have… one," he said, drifting off to sleep. Kaoru tugged his hand out from under the older boy, using it to take his face between his hands.

"Think of one!"

Kyoya yawned widely, eyes fluttering. "Nekozawa…? Renge…? Hani-Senpai and your brother tie for sixth." He opened one eye and fixed it on the younger student in a scathing glare. "What the fuck is this all about? I'm trying to sleep.

Kaoru blinked before letting go of the older student with sudden haste. What was he doing?

"Renge beats my brother." He muttered to himself. "We look the same."

"Personality," Kyoya muttered, "makes much more of a difference when there are two people that look the same to choose from."

Kaoru thought about this for a few moments. It made a lot of sense.

"If you look at us, personality-wise, Tamaki and I are on opposite ends of the spectrum. You and your brother, when taken together, are directly in the middle. However, taken as separate entities, you are far closer to my end of the line than you are to Tamaki's, and the opposite pertains to your brother. That being said, despite Hikaru being more like someone that I would be willing to spend the rest of my life with would he be interested and not because I had to based on the circumstances of the scenario, Hikaru is too much like me and much too much like Tamaki for me to ever be attracted to him. Hikaru has all the dramatic tendencies of Tamaki and all the moodiness that comes with it, but he also possesses a manipulative streak, as well as a sadistic one. Taken together, I couldn't ever handle him. He has none of my control, and none of the charm that Tamaki has to compensate for it. As Tamaki and I are opposites, you and your brother are also. The line is just much shorter in your cases."

Kaoru paused, making sure the older boy was done speaking, before taking a tentative stab at the avoided choice. "And Haruhi?"

Kyoya laughed. "Kaoru, you know the answer to that." His voice was more bitter than amused. "You can't help but fall for someone like Haruhi."

"Do you ever hate her?" Kaoru asked, voice quiet in the empty blackness of the room. "I mean if she'd never shown up, you'd probably have been married off to some random girl by convenience and neither of you would have cared who you were really sleeping with. You and Tamaki could have been happy together out of public eye. Hikaru and I, too."

"Do you?" Kyoya replied with an audible hint of dry amusement. The younger boy was silent for nearly a minute.

"No."

Kyoya laughed, and the sound was so lacking in mirth it made the boy shiver. "Hai. You have no choice in the matter. You can't help but love someone like her."

* * *

"You have to call your brother, Kaoru."

"I don't _have_ to do anything."

"Kaoru, I promise you I have no qualms about forcing you to leave the premises."

"So I'll simply rent a hotel room or some such nonsense."

Kyoya sighed heavily. "If you're going to continue to go about pretending that you were not listening to anything discussed over the phone yesterday, it would do you well to not quote me."

"I never said I didn't listen to any of them. Just the last one."

"You should speak to him."

"I _should_," the boy allowed, but his expression made it clear that he had no intention of doing so.

"You speak to him or you clear out by tomorrow night."

Kaoru raised an eyebrow. "Just speak to him?"

"I'm not asking you to forgive him," Kyoya replied evenly. "But you should discuss the matter. Use my phone, speak for less than five minutes, it doesn't matter to me. But you must do it."

Kaoru eyed his friend speculatively. "Alright. Pass me my phone."

Kyoya felt some of the guilt stirring in his chest dissipate, and he breathed an inaudible, unnoticeable sigh of relief as he unplugged Kaoru's phone from the wall behind him and handed the red-head his cell-phone. Kaoru took it and it began to ring almost immediately; his brother was speed-dial one. He put it on speaker and nonchalantly left it on the coffee-table in the middle of the small sitting area on the lower portion of Kyoya's room. His bed was in the loft above, but they'd moved downstairs for appearances sake. Kyoya raised an eyebrow at Kaoru's total lack of a need for privacy and took it as a bad omen, but it was too late to do anything about it.

"Kaoru? Hikaru's voice breathed on the other end, as if he half expected it to be a trick.

"Hai, Hikaru?"

"Kaoru, oh… thank god. Are you… uhm… are you alright?

"Hai, Kyoya's a most generous host."

"He is, is he?" the malice in Hikaru's voice would have been apparent to a snail.

"Hai, although he threatened to toss me out on the street if I didn't speak to you about, as he referred to it, '_the matter_'. I had no choice but to call you."

"He did, did he?" the tone of voice was much more grateful now, but for some reason Kyoya was not pleased by this at all. He didn't like where the conversation seemed to be headed.

"Hai, he did."

There was a long silence on the other end. "When are you coming _home_, Kaoru?"

The younger boy swallowed, setting his jaw. "When I can."

"You can now, Kaoru. That choice was never taken from you."

Kaoru laughed. "I'm sure you're mistaken, Hikaru. You see, it takes a certain amount of time to get over a person. And since I've been trying to get over this one boy for the longest time, well… I assume you have about as much trouble as I do."

"No, you don't understand." The boy's voice was bitterly happy on the other end, and Kyoya waited for the news he'd been expecting for the past two weeks. "Tono and Haruhi… on Friday…You see, you and Kyoya left as soon as clubs was over, but Haruhi was tending to his nose and something happened. She was sitting next to him one minute, and the next they were just… and well… it just seemed to slip out of him after that. Not that any of us expected differently, considering the circumstances."

Kaoru laughed a maniac sort of cackle, more frightening than amused. "I pretty much break his nose with a door and he uses it as an opportunity to finally get in good with Haruhi. Just like Tono."

"Tamaki didn't tell me when he called," Kyoya said suddenly, knowing full well Kaoru had hoped something of the sort would come from his actions in any case. The surprise was mostly feigned.

"Oh, yeah, tell Kyoya-Senpai Tono said he couldn't trust him anymore…" Hikaru said, sounding sheepish. He obviously did not realize he was on speakerphone.

"Oh… hai, I do recall something to that extent." Kyoya frowned.

"Please come home, Kaoru."

The younger boy looked at the phone in silent disbelief for a few moments, face reddening. Kyoya sighed and waited for the outburst.

"You expect me to _come home_ just because your _other_ choice is no longer _available_?" Kaoru snarled.

"No, no, no! Kao- I've wanted- you don't understand-"

"You're right I don't."

"_Kaoru_."

"Goodbye, Hikaru."

Kaoru stood and closed the device with a vengeance, the snap echoing across the room. He moved to throw it, but Kyoya stopped him with a hand on his wrist, gently pulling the device out of his hand and placing it calmly on the table. Kaoru yanked his arm away in response. There was a long period of silence before Kaoru looked up from where his fists were clenched at his sides, hands relaxing with some difficulty as he looked at Kyoya with a mildly pleasant expression.

"There, I spoke to him."

"Hai, you did."

There was another period of silence. Kaoru sat next to the older student and cleared his throat.

"So… Haruhi and Tono finally got together, huh?"

"So it seems."

"Not that we weren't expecting it."

"Of course."

Another silence.

"We're pathetic."

Kyoya chuckled. "Speak for yourself."

"I'm in love with my brother and his crush, but hate him for liking the same girl. You're in love with your best friend and his girlfriend, who happens to be the same crush. Don't sugarcoat it; we're pathetic."

Another silence.

"So… since you can't have choice one and two since they're together… and choice three is currently in love with choice six, who definitely doesn't deserve it…" The boy trailed off.

"And four is straight," Kyoya reminded him with a smirk. "Despite his rather odd feelings for his cousin."

"And four is straight… what do you plan to do?"

Kyoya chuckled. "Compensate?"

Kaoru smiled bitterly. "Ah, hai. There's always that." He gave the boy a hopeful look, like that of a cat asking for a treat it fully expected to be refused. "I don't suppose…"

Kyoya chuckled. "You already have me knee-deep in trouble."

"But it can't get any worse, _can_ it?" the boy challenged.

"No, I suppose not," Kyoya said thoughtfully. Kaoru smiled as the older boy shifted slightly towards him, a mildly speculative gleam in his eyes.

"Is that agreement I sense?"

Kyoya chuckled darkly. "I suppose we should lock the door and take this upstairs." He paused. "This is not exactly the choice I was thinking when I suggested compensation."

Kaoru grinned. "Nobody gets to live Plan A," he said, getting up to lock the door as Kyoya shut his laptop and stood, stretching. "And if they do, well… they're freaks."

"Like Tamaki and Haruhi?" Kyoya replied with a smirk as Kaoru took his hand and practically dragged him up the stairs to the loft.

"Exactly."

**A/N: So I'm getting a lot of mixed feedback for this one. Half of you hate how evil Kaoru is, and half of you love it. Let me just say something; in the manga, doesn't Kaoru go on a date with Haruhi and kiss her just to tick off his brother? Or something like that. Maybe I'm switching them. Hrm. I dunno, anyhow, in general Kaoru is the methodical and manipulative one, whereas Hikaru is irritable and moodly simply because that's the way he's wired. Because he's childish. If Kaoru were to be mean in retaliation to his brother then, following that logic (if it makes any sense at all to you XD) he would have to plan as such. Which would evolve - possibly - into this situation. Or at least, that's how I see it. Plus, wouldn't you get tired of being the uke _all_ the time? XD Idk, I kinda agree with some of you; evil plotting Kaoru is much sexier.**

**Anyhow, responses to my attempt at an explanation would be nice. Or just reviews in general. Those are nice too. ^.^ Or criticism. Or flames. Whatever works for you. And only one chapter left, cause that's day five, isn't it? ;) I'm taking bets on what resolves it; get it right and... idk. Metaphorical cookie? Maybe a oneshot if you're spot-on? Dedication? I'll think about it. :) Hope you've nejoyed it so far in any case.**


	5. Compensation

_**Day Five: Compensation**_

"I don't think compensation was meant to be used in the context that we seem to have been applying it to of late," Kyoya said with a yawn as he woke to hazel eyes blinking sleepily at him from across his pillow.

Kaoru smiled dryly. "Agreed."

Kyoya eyed the boy speculatively. "You talk in your sleep too, you know."

Kaoru's eyes narrowed slightly. "And?"

"And almost all you talk about is your brother."

The boy winced slightly. "Gomen."

Kyoya smiled grimly. "It's fine." He eyed the younger boy. "Although… perhaps you could be a little more forgiving, hmm?"

"I wasn't blabbering on about Haruhi," he snorted. Kyoya smiled broadly, with real mirth this time, and the boy's eyes widened. "I didn't."

"Oh, hai. You did."

"Fuck."

Kyoya laughed, real laughter, and Kaoru savoured the sound knowing he wouldn't hear it again soon. "Very eloquent choice of words, Kaoru."

"I know, right?" he replied acerbically. The black-haired boy smirked. "Shit. You know what this means, right?"

Kyoya chuckled. "Are you going to shower first, or am I going to call the limo as soon as you're done repacking?"

Kaoru sighed and stretched, his body cracking audibly.

"I should shower." He gave Kyoya a raunchy grin. "After all, I wouldn't want to go home smelling like you."

"No," Kyoya said dryly. "Wouldn't want that at all."

"So… if anyone asks we slept together how many times?"

"Officially?"

Kaoru chuckled. "Alright, _amuse_ me, as you so _eloquently _put it."

"Zero."

Kaoru snorted, then a feigned sorrowful look spread across his face. "I'm going to go home talking like you."

Kyoya snorted.

"They're not going to believe that, you know."

"But it's true," Kyoya protested with a grin.

Kaoru rolled his eyes.

"But, should you choose to spread rumours, we can tell them once." Kyoya smirked. "Just to humour their imaginations of course."

"Of course." Kaoru moved towards the shower then paused, turning to look at Kyoya where he was stretched out on the bed for a moment. The older boy raised an eyebrow in response.

"Do you take the short end of the stick on purpose?" Kaoru asked, suddenly. Kyoya smirked.

"Why would I do that?"

" 'Cause secretly you're a nice person?" Kaoru ventured. Kyoya chuckled.

"Go take a shower, Kaoru."

The red head didn't move an inch.

"I'm gonna miss hanging out with you."

"Don't you dare get sentimental on me," the Shadow-Lord admonished, stretching languorously. "Besides, you'll see me at school."

Kaoru smirked. "You're right."

Kyoya then fixed him with a look, his eyes glinting. "If you ever get tired of that wayward brother of yours, though…"

"You'll be the first to know." Kaoru grinned lopsidedly. "Or if I ever need to make him jealous."

Kyoya laughed outright at that, and Kaoru watched with a marginally melancholy smile, knowing he would miss this easy banter between them. That laugh, so very rarely heard by anyone but Tamaki...

"Or that," he replied, subsiding into his usual chuckle. "There's always that."

* * *

"Young master Hitachiin?" a maid called. The boy looked up at the closed door from where he was lying in bed, his feet propped up against the wall. It was a surprisingly comfortable position, and it was supposed to bring more blood to the brain. Help one think. Usually he reserved it for English and Literature homework, but figuring out what to say to his brother the next time he saw him seemed like a worthy cause.

"Hai?"

"Your brother's back from his trip."

Hikaru, in his haste to get up, fell off the bed and slammed his hip into the bedside table, knocking the alarm clock over and into his stomach.

"_Fuck_!"

"Hikaru?" Kaoru called, throwing the door open and looking around for his brother for a few moments before realizing that the tangle of sheets and a shock of red on the floor next to the bed _was_ the boy in question. The maids placed his suitcase near the door and left unobtrusively as Kaoru stared down at his brother in a state of disbelief. Hikaru groaned in agony and tried to untangle himself from the blankets.

"You know," the younger boy said conversationally as he walked over to help him, lips twitching as he fought laughter, "this wasn't exactly how I imagined our reunion."

"Really now?" Hikaru said, biting back a moan as he stood. Kaoru bit his lip to stave off the laughter.

"No, not quite." He indulged in a smirk. "Where'd you hurt yourself? _How'd_ you hurt yourself?"

Hikaru sighed and indicated his left hip with a sweep of his hand. "I fell off and hit the table."

"And what were you doing with your hip up by the bedside table instead of halfway down the bed where it belongs?"

"I was sitting in my thinking position," Hikaru said defensively. Kaoru sighed.

"Let me see."

Hikaru unbuttoned his jeans, still red-faced with embarrassment, and pulled them off, pulling down the waistband of his boxers to show a developing bruise. Kaoru fingered the already bluish skin as gently as he knew how, but the older boy hissed through his teeth anyway. "Aw, shit. If it's that color now, I must have hit it bad."

"You fail, you know that right?" Kaoru said, still in the same conversational tone as his lips continued to twitch. He sat up to look back into catlike amber eyes that mirrored his own.

Hikaru scowled. "I wanted to see you."

"So you got excited and hurt yourself." He grinned cheekily, and Hikaru's glare disappeared as he looked at the younger boy with wide, blinking eyes. The circumstances of his situation seemed to have finally sunk in. "Why does this sound familiar?"

"Why… why are you home, Kao?"

Kaoru raised an eyebrow. "I can go back to Kyoya's place."

"No, no!" Hikaru said quickly, throwing his arms around the other boy. One hand slid around his waist and pulled him as close as possible, the other sliding around his neck before burying itself in his hair. Kaoru put his arms around his brother's waist tentatively, the feeling of his hands on the older boy's skin making his chest ache. "I just meant… what made you change your mind?"

Kaoru smirked. "Well… turns out Kyoya doesn't house hypocrites."

Hikaru blinked at him in confusion, and Kaoru shot him a withering look.

"You haven't touched me for five days, seen me in almost two, and the first thing you do when you see me is ask why I'm here?"

Hikaru grinned lopsidedly and pulled Kaoru closer, crushing their lips together with the desperation of a dying man in his last breath. For a few devastating moments the world seemed to stop spinning on its axis, the two of them held in a separate space, a separate moment, a separate time.

Then Kaoru remembered that he needed to breathe.

As he pulled back, both breathing heavily, Hikaru's eyes burning as he stared back at him, he grinned mischievously. Hikaru looked at him warily.

"That's all? Kyoya was a much better-mmhm…"

Kaoru laughed when they pulled apart again as Hikaru pinned him to the bed, pulling off his two black and blue wifebeaters with one smooth movement before moving back to kiss the younger boy.

"Such fervor, Hikaru," Kaoru teased as Hikaru pulled back to remove the other boy's black cargo pants, then his own black sleeveless hoodie and then the white wifebeater under that. "You know-"

"Oh, _shut_ _up_," the boy growled, kissing along his neck hungrily. Kaoru chuckled. "Is this more of what you were expecting?"

Kaoru chuckled again. "Closer. Although we were wearing less clothing."

Hikaru mumbled agreement between kisses and moved down to his boxers, and it was the last meaningful sound either made for a long time. Afterwards they lay tangled together in the semi-darkness of the room together, relishing in the simple feeling of being with each other again.

"I love you," Hikaru whispered against his neck. Kaoru smiled smugly.

"I know," he said. "And it's not even in compensation."

**A/N: Okay so did anyone read the new chapter of the manga, see Kyoya turn around after waking up to see Kaoru there, and think of this story? XD Well maybe that's cocky of me considering it's mine, but I thought it was a pretty funny coincidence since I was putting the last touches on this and reading at the same time. Anyhow, hope you enjoyed this one. I know that I left Kyoya all alone but considering the circumstances I'd put in place for the plot it made no sense for Kaoru to stay with him indefinitely. I hope you understand. And just know that Kyoya is my favorite character, so it makes me sad to see him all alone too. T.T Anyhow, last reviews cause this is the end! Comments, critiques, all of that good stuff. Even flames. XD**


End file.
